Sam’s random musings

Underdog “Stinky” robot beats MIT in underwater bot championship:

Wired has the story of how four students from Carl Hayden Community High School in Phoenix, Arizona beat some of the best schools in the country, including MIT, to win the national underwater robot championship. The students, who are all undocumented Mexican immigrants, built their robot on the cheap in just three days, using PVC pipe, off-the-shelf electronics and a few tampons. Called “Stinky”, the bot can record sonar pings and retrieve objects 50 feet below the water’s surface. In addition to the top prize, the bot also ended up winning the design and technical writing awards. The team’s total budget ended up being just $800, compared to $11,000 for the MIT team.

I love this, living in Arizona we rarely get to see/ read/ hear about positive stories about immigrants there really is a deep groundswell of resentment coming here. It is also good to hear something good in education in a state that is 50th in the nation in per student funding. (that’s 50th out of 51 states + DC) so we’re not last but pretty close. Perhaps it is time to start saving the moola for private school…

(Via Engadget.)